Congress of the United States. The legislative body of the United States is called the Congress of the United States, and consists of a senate, elected by the legislatures of the several states, and a House of Representatives, elected by the
Copyright 1889 in U.S.
by J. B. Lippincott
Company. direct votes of the people. It is supreme within its constitutional limits, deriving its powers directly from the people. By constitutional provision congress has certain direct, express powers, and such implied powers as are necessary to carry these into effect. It convenes on the first Monday in December in each year, and receives from the president of the United States his annual message, giving information of the state of the Union, and containing such suggestions and recommendations as he may judge expedient and necessary.
Express Powers.—Congress has power to impose and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States. This grant of sovereign power is independent of state control, and is limited only by the provision in the constitution that the duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.
Congress has power to borrow money on the credit of the United States, to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states and with the Indian tribes. It has the exclusive power to establish a uniform rule of naturalisation, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcy throughout the United States; to coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures; to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States; and to establish post-offices and post-roads. Congress has power to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries; to constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations.
Congress alone has power to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water. It can raise and support armies, may provide and maintain a navy, and make rules for the government of the land and naval forces. Congress has power to provide for calling forth the militia of the several states for the purpose of executing the United States laws, to suppress insurrections, and repel invasions, and to provide for organising, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States; reserving to the states respectively the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia, according to the discipline prescribed by congress.
Congress exercises exclusive legislative control in all cases whatsoever over the District of Columbia (the seat of government of the United States), and over all places purchased for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings. Congress has power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States, and to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution all powers vested by the constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or offices thereof.
Constitutional Limitations.—Congress cannot pass a bill of attainder or any ex post facto law. Neither can it lay any tax or duty upon articles exported from any state, or give preference to the ports of one state over those of another, by any regulation of commerce or revenue; nor can it compel vessels bound to or from one state to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. It cannot enact a law taking from the citizen his private property for public use without compensation therefor.
Congress cannot make any law respecting au establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or denying the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Congress cannot enact any law that will render the people insecure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects from unreasonable searches and seizures; or authorise any warrants to issue but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Congress has no power to take from a person accused of crime his right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state or district wherein the crime was committed; or his right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, and to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favour; or his right to be defended by counsel. It cannot enact a law requiring excessive bail, imposing excessive fines, or inflicting cruel and unusual punishments.
Senate.—The senate is composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof for a term of six years, so arranged that one-third of all the senators shall go out every two years. No person is eligible for the office of senator unless he is thirty years of age, has been a citizen of the United States nine years, and is an inhabitant of the state for which he is chosen. The senate is presided over by the vice-president of the United States, but in case that officer is acting president of the United States, or is unable to preside, the senate elects a presiding officer pro tempore. It chooses all its other officers. The senate has the sole power to try impeachments presented by the House of Representatives, and when sitting in that capacity the senators are sworn or affirmed. Should the president of the United States be on trial, the chief-justice of the Supreme Court of the United States presides, and two-thirds of the senate may convict, upon which judgment of removal from office and disqualification to hold any office of honour, trust, or profit under the United States may be pronounced.
House of Representatives.—The House of Representatives is composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states. It elects a Speaker to preside over its deliberations, and all its other officers. No person can be a representative in congress who has not attained the age of twenty-five years and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and he must be an inhabitant of the state in which he is chosen.
The representatives are apportioned among the several states according to the number of their inhabitants respectively, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for president and vice-president of the United States, representatives in congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or is in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, by constitutional provision the basis of representation is reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens bears to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state. The first article of the United States Constitution provides that there shall not be more than one representative to every 30,000 inhabitants, but the apportionment after the census of 1890 gave one representative to 173,900 inhabitants, or 356 in all. One was added for Utah in 1896. Each organised territory of the United States is entitled to send one delegate to the House of Representatives, who may take part in the debates but cannot vote.
The House of Representatives has the sole power of impeachment of the executive and judicial officers of the United States, and must present the charges on which it rests to the senate for trial. Each house is judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members, and a majority constitute a quorum to do business; but a less number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorised to compel the attendance of absent members.
Each house determines the rules of its own procedure, and may punish its members for disorderly behaviour, and also may compel the attendance of witnesses before its committees, and inflict punishment for contempt of its authority.
Each house must keep a journal of its proceedings, and must publish the same (excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy), and at the desire of one-fifth of the members present, the yeas and nays of the members voting on any question must be entered on the journal. But neither house, during the session of congress, without the consent of the other, can adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting.
No senator or representative may be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States which shall have been created during the time for which he was elected, and no person holding any office under the United States can, during his continuance in office, be a member of either house of congress.
Members of congress are privileged from arrest, except for treason, felony, and breach of the peace, during their attendance upon their public duties.
Two-thirds of the senators present must concur in any treaty which may be made, and in all appointments by the president of ambassadors, or other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, and such other officers whose appointments are not otherwise provided for.
By the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, abolishing slavery, guaranteeing civil rights, the validity of the public debt of the United States, and forbidding the denial or abridgment of the United States citizen's right to vote on account of race, colour, or previous condition of servitude, congress is empowered to enforce these provisions by appropriate legislation.
When any person, having taken an oath to support the constitution of the United States, as an executive or judicial officer of the United States or of any state, or as a member of congress or state legislature, is, by article xiv. of the United States constitution, ineligible to the position of senator or representative, or elector of president and vice-president of the United States, or to any office, civil or military, under the government of the United States, from having engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, congress is empowered to remove this disability by a two-thirds vote of both houses.
ACTS OF CONGRESS are the legislative enactments of the two houses of congress. Bills may originate in either house (except bills for raising revenue, which must originate in the House of Representatives), and be introduced by any member, and may be amended in either house. They are usually referred to the appropriate standing committee for examination and report; and are read a first, second, and third time before being put upon their final passage, being subject to modification or amendment and discussion, according to the rules in each house.
After a bill has been passed by both houses, it is presented to the president of the United States for his approval and signature. If he approves and signs it, it becomes a law. If he does not approve it, the president returns it, with his objections, to the house in which it originated; and that house must enter his objections at large upon its journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after reconsideration it is passed by a two-thirds vote, it is sent to the other house with the president's objections, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that house, it becomes a law; the vote in both houses must be taken by yeas and nays, and the names of the voters for or against are entered upon the journal of each house respectively. If the bill is not returned by the president within ten days (Sundays excepted), it becomes a law in the same manner as if he had signed it, unless congress by adjournment prevents its return, in which case it does not become a law.
Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of both houses is necessary (except adjournment) must likewise be presented to the president after passage, and in case of his disapproval (or veto) must be repassed by a two-thirds vote in the same manner as bills, in order to become a law notwithstanding his objections.
The sessions of congress usually continue during several months, but congress can adjourn at any time by the concurrence of a majority of both houses. If, however, congress adjourns without passing the appropriation bills necessary for the expenses of government, a special session of congress may be called by the president of the United States. Each congress ends on 4th March, every second year, at twelve o'clock noon. See J. W. Moore, The American Congress (1895).